Heineken and F1 announce multi-year deal

MONTREAL (Reuters) - Heineken and Formula One announced a multi-year global partnership on Thursday that the Dutch brewer said would rank alongside its long-standing sponsorship of European soccer's Champions League.

No financial details were given for the deal, which was announced at the Canadian Grand Prix and starts in September with title sponsorship of the Italian Grand Prix at Monza.

"F1 is going to be one of our biggest ever partnerships. The world is going to notice that we are in F1," Gianluca Di Tondo, Senior Director, Global Heineken Brand, told Reuters.

Heineken will be Formula One's official beer partner. From 2017, the brand will be title sponsor of three grands prix with significant signage at six others. The branding will not be on any cars.

Thursday's announcement comes after Red Bull's Max Verstappen last month became, at 18, the youngest Formula One race winner and first Dutch driver to top the podium.

Di Tondo said discussions between the world's third largest brewer and Bernie Ecclestone's Formula One Management had been ongoing for some time.

"It is the right moment to do this partnership. We expect it to be a long-term one," he said.

"We estimate Formula One can give us the extra 200 million people on top of the other global consumers we have and F1 is looking for spectators to turn into F1 fans. Together we can both reach our goal.
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